I need a little help here guys. I've got a 1975 Vette that needs a paint job. I'm being told that media blasting off all the old paint so you can see what's going on with the body is the only way to go. Some shops say just sanding the old paint and than painting is OK. I intend to keep this car a long time and want it done right so what do you guys think. Also, I live in SE Wisconsin so anybody knows of a good Vette painter in the West Bend, Milwaukee, Madison area please let me know. Thanks tons, Darrell

Vette(s):1982 C3 Collectors Edition 44000 miles, sat in the sun most of it's life, My wife purchased it for me for fathers day in 2007 from her girl friend that had it for 19 years. It is on the road again. I'm retired but it is now my daily driver.

Joined: 10/17/2007
Posts: 2007

I saw a guy use a pressure washer to strip the paint off his vet. Wonder what type of damage that would do to the fiberglass?

As Joel stated above soda blasting works but gets everywhere. It won't hurt your chrome, windows or plastic lens. When completed all residue needs to be cleaned and washed or you will have paint issues. Even if you do the soda blasting there's a good chance you'll need to do work on the seems which means filling and sanding. I can't say what the cost of blasting would be but for my 72 we went the old fashion way and sanded since it had to have other work for him. No matter which way you go the key will be the block sanding and prep before the paint.
Best of luck
Rodney

A pressure washer? Musta been a bad paint job....or there was some chemicals involved.Don't know that a pressure washer would damage the 'glass, unless it was held in one spot too long. Bet you could burn a hole in it pretty quick, if ya wanted to! I guess it kinda depends on how MUCH pressure is involved. And...where does the paint go? It's a neat idea, I s'pose....might be a good deal to get it down to a sandable surface quickly, with no powder residue to clean out of every nook & cranny(what the heck IS a "cranny", anyway?) for the next 20 years.

Vette(s):1982 C3 Collectors Edition 44000 miles, sat in the sun most of it's life, My wife purchased it for me for fathers day in 2007 from her girl friend that had it for 19 years. It is on the road again. I'm retired but it is now my daily driver.

Joined: 10/17/2007
Posts: 2007

I will see if I can find the video again it was on this forum that I saw it posted. I believe he stated it took him only a couple of hours to do it.

He just used water and a home unit. I do not know about how bad of a paint job it was but I do know that paint shops hate you taking your car to a pressure wash to clean it.

New paint jobs seem to hold up but after market California approved paint I'm not to sure about.

I saw a TV show where they used dry ice instead of soda blasting. There is no mess and reportly leaves a very clean and smoth finish . I think it would depend on the " technician " using the equipment . Somebody sacrifice a boat .
Just my. 2 cents . I would. Stay with sanding or soda blasting. Paint striping chemicals will most likely effect the gel coat and the fiberglass resin.
Big Al

apasbigal said: I saw a TV show where they used dry ice instead of soda blasting. There is no mess and re portly leaves a very clean and smooth finish . I think it would depend on the " technician " using the equipment . .
Big Al

ok..here goes, I used a pressure washer for stripping off my 76's paint. I used the No. 15 nozzle to remove 95% of the paint, just found some chipped areas and started away. The washer did not hurt the primer. The rear deck area had some problems and would not strip. Any area that would not peel away with the washer was left alone for the body shop to hand sand! I must mention that this as a second paint job...so might have stripped easier...due to poor work on last job and this was not done in one day. It took several 4 hour sessions to complete.

Vette(s):1982 C3 Collectors Edition 44000 miles, sat in the sun most of it's life, My wife purchased it for me for fathers day in 2007 from her girl friend that had it for 19 years. It is on the road again. I'm retired but it is now my daily driver.

Joined: 10/17/2007
Posts: 2007

Ron

That has to be a lot easier and sure is a lot faster that sanding or using a blade to take of the paint. Did you get down to the original primer is that what you said?

I do believe that it was the org. primer. I could even see were areas were marked for additional repairs. (at factory) My body shop noted that the back deck area had been repainted additional times. I have read that the factory often repainted areas or even the whole car during this time period. POOR painting at factory...so repainted there. Yes I was very pleased with the water stripping. Another vet owner used razor and sanding...and now has a real mess on his hands. He is down to glass in many places and will need several layers of primer to correct the damage. He went to paint trade school and they work metal...not glass!!! The light gray you see is the gel coat. Water had gotten in between the primer and gel coat. My hood had water in between the layers????? Drilled holes on underside to drain it. Hope this helped.

Corvette is a registered trademark of the General Motors Corporation(GM) &
Chevrolet Motor Division. Vette Registries, LLC is responsible for all site content (except for member submitted content or where otherwise
noted) and does not claim or imply that Chevrolet or
GM is responsible for Official C3 Vette Registry content. Vette Registries, LLC is independent from GM and is not affiliated
with, sponsored or supported by GM. Copyright/trademark/sales mark
infringements are not intended, or implied and are in fact used to support
GM, Chevrolet and Corvette.

Official C3 Vette Registry content is Copyright 2001-2018, Vette Registries, LLC. Content may not be reused without written consent. All Rights Reserved. NS